1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to bodies for motor vehicles and, more particularly, to an underbody assembly for a motor vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known to provide an underbody for a motor vehicle. A motor vehicle may include a rear-wheel drive having the underbody at a load floor height to clear a differential carried by a rear axle of the rear-wheel drive. Also, a motor vehicle may include a front-wheel drive having the underbody at a load floor height which is lower to the ground because the rear axle does not carry the differential. As a result, motor vehicle manufacturers typically develop two different body structures for both front-wheel and rear-wheel drive motor vehicles to serve both light and heavy duty ends of the market.
One attempt to overcome this disadvantage is to use a common body structure and raise a ride height of the motor vehicle for the rear-wheel drive. However, this creates other disadvantages such as reduced interior roof height (and accompanying reduction in interior and volume) of the motor vehicle if an exterior roof height which will fit into standard parking garages is maintained. As a result, there is a need in the art to provide a modular platform design that allows the sharing of nearly all structural sheet metal parts and assembly tooling to achieve two underbody load floor heights for the same motor vehicle, in an automated assembly manufacturing operation.